Yahoo Movies Ed Henry Fired by Fox News After Sexual Misconduct Investigation
Ed Henry has been fired by Fox News.
The network announced Henry's dismissal Wednesday morning in an internal memo sent to Fox News employees, citing allegations of sexual misconduct as the grounds for his termination.
"On Thursday, June 25, we received a complaint about Ed Henry from a former employee's attorney involving willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago," states the memo, obtained by PEOPLE. "We immediately retained an outside law firm (which has never represented Fox News in investigations or litigation) to investigate the claims. Ed was suspended the same day and removed from his on-air responsibilities pending investigation."
According to the memo, Henry was fired based on the findings of the investigation.
Henry, 48, will be replaced on America's Newsroom by rotating co-anchors until an official replacement is named. Sandra Smith will continue to act as co-host.
"Fox News media strictly prohibits all forms of sexual harassment, misconduct, and discrimination," reads the memo. "We will continue striving to maintain a safe and inclusive workplace for all employees."
A lawyer for Henry tells PEOPLE in a statement, “Ed Henry denies the allegations referenced in the Fox announcement and is confident that he will be vindicated after a full hearing in an appropriate forum.”
Smith, 39, addressed the news on-air Wednesday.
"A moment, now, for some news about the co-anchor of this program, Ed Henry," she began. "After a recent claim and investigation involving sexual misconduct in the workplace, Ed has been terminated from Fox News."
"In an internal memo to employees, Fox News Media CEO, Suzanne Scott, and President and Executive Editor, Jay Wallace, addressed this very serious issue in an effort to bring full transparency to it and emphasized that we will continue to strive to maintain a safe and inclusive workplace for all employees," she continued. "Rotating anchors will be sitting in with me until a replacement is named."
Henry joined Fox News as the chief White House correspondent in 2011 after a stint at CNN. He went on to become the network's chief national correspondent before signing on as co-host of America's Newsroom.
In 2016, he took several months off from the network after a report surfaced alleging that the journalist cheated on his wife.
"We recently became aware of Ed's personal issues and he's taking some time off to work things out," Fox News stated at the time.
News of the alleged affair spread after Natalie Lima — a Las Vegas hostess — claimed she had a relationship with Henry, sharing text messages she said were from him.
According to Lima, the pair carried on a sexual relationship for 10 months. Henry did not respond to the allegations at the time.
